Heritage Vancouver recently released its list of the Top 10 Endangered Heritage Sites for 2012 and the Main Post Office on Georgia made the top of the list. It’s the focus of this week’s Vancouver Icons series. Photo credit: jmv on Flickr Before this branch opened, Vancouver’s mail came through the post office at what […]

The Vancouver Heritage Foundation presents their 10th annual Heritage House Tour on Sunday, June 3rd. This one-day self-guided tour leads participants through 10 different houses, a church that has been converted to strata units, Cedar Cottage homes, Shaughnessy mansions, and more. Photo credit: Martin Knowles for Vancouver Heritage Foundation on Flickr Over 18,000 people have […]

If you’ve ever driven to or from Vancouver International Airport (“YVR”) then you have traveled along Grant McConachie Way. This road on Sea Island was named after bush pilot Grant McConachie, a man who Chuck Davis referred to as “a genuine Canadian hero”. From the BC Aviation Hall of Fame, excerpted from Peter Piggott’s book […]

Playland is opening for 2012 this weekend so a look through the City of Vancouver Archives to find old amusement park photos seemed in order. 1929 – Entrance gate to the Vancouver Exhibition and Happyland on Renfrew. VPL#: 7925. Photographer: Leonard Frank. 1939 – Fair rides. Archives item# CVA 99 – 3131. Photographer: Stuart Thomson. […]

99 years ago, on April 16, 1913, Athletic Park was dedicated on Hemlock and West 5th. 1915 – Opening Day vs Victoria by the City of Vancouver Archives on Flickr. Archives item# PAN N14B. Photographer: WJ Moore. Chuck Davis writes: “The park was built by Bob Brown, who would come to be known as Mr. […]

I love stepping under the canopy of Stanley Park‘s forest trails, detouring from the concrete paths of the Sea Wall and surrounding thoroughfares. A few years ago I profiled the origins of several Stanley Park Trail Names including Merilees, Rawlings, Tatlow, Thompson, and Tisdall. Tourism Vancouver recently launched their ultimate guide to Stanley Park (useful […]

Each year Heritage Vancouver lists their Top Ten Endangered Sites around the city. These are libraries, schools, motels, theatres, and other structures whose fate is uncertain or threatened. The 2012 list will be revealed exclusively during a bus tour next month. Date: Saturday, May 5, 2012 Time: 1pm to 5pm (loading begins at 12:30pm and […]

New Westminster will be celebrating the 120th anniversary of the Burr Block building this month. The old provincial capital was destroyed by fire in 1898 (twelve years after Vancouver’s “Great Fire”) and the Burr Block at 411-419 Columbia Street was only one of two buildings that remained. Today, it’s the home of the Met Hotel, […]

Walking around Stanley Park nowadays there are hardly any remnants of the zoo that once housed over 50 species of animals, from monkeys and cobras to penguins and kangaroos. However, the old cement polar bear habitat still haunts the grounds just west of Brockton Oval and south of the Vancouver Aquarium. When I was young […]

Legendary elusive billionaire Howard Hughes once holed up in Vancouver’s Bayshore hotel (now Westin Bayshore) for six straight months. It’s been 40 years since his stay and Heritage Vancouver is hosting an anniversary tour to commemorate the unusual event. 1961 – Bayshore Inn, Coal Harbour. Archives item# 2010-006.046. What Howard Hughes at the Bayshore: 40th […]